Die seltsame Gräfin/The Strange Countess was based on Edgar Wallace’s book by the same name from 1925.
Some sources state that the novel had previously been adapted under the title The Jewel (1931). If not lost, then this version is currently at least not easily available, and it is difficult to examine whether this genuinely had indeed been a proper adaptation.
It was Rialto’s eighth Edgar Wallace and the first they shot in Berlin and not Hamburg. That year they had already released four other Wallaces, a sign that the Krimiwave was running hot. Countess followed right on the heals of Der Fälscher von London/The Forger of London (1961).
It was the director’s first and only Wallace film. In actual fact Jürgen Roland had to finish the production when von Baky fell sick. Countess would ultimately be his final film. He died five years later in 1966. Hungarian born von Baky had a long and varied directorial career and is best known for his Münchhausen (1943) with Hans Albers.
This film may feature typical Wallace tropes like orphans with a family secret, falsely accused innocents and mysterious inheritances, but it does forsake masked villains and instead is carried by bravura performances from Lil Dagover and Klaus Kinski.
Dagover was one of Germany’s Grande Dames and as the titular Countess draws from all the registers of her acting nous. The entire movie often appears centred around her and this may arguably even constitute the best performance in an Edgar Wallace film ever.... provided you don't listen to her voice in the English dub.
Kinski plays…. Kinski.
At his best.
(Or is that: worst?)
Whatever one’s first thoughts are when the name Kinski comes up, in Countess he does just that as the seriously deranged Stuart Bresset who drives Margaret to the brink of madness with his phone calls warning her about her upcoming death.
Countess marked a move away from the kind of masked villain drama that the viewer had become accustomed to and focused more on questions of sanity. The bulk of the characters are pure bonkers. No other word for it.
In actual fact with an old school cast of talent in front of and behind the camera, the film often emulates old Weimar cinema (as well as, let’s not brush this under the table, the entertainment cinema of Hitler’s Third Reich). Apart from director von Baky and Lil Dagover, we also have again Fritz Rasp as Margaret’s benevolent but also somewhat creepy boss, Rudolf Fernau as the director of an insane asylum who is battier than his inmates, and Marianne Hoppe as a female convict with a mysterious interest in Margaret’s welfare.
Even screenwriter Robert A. Stemmle with his first Krimi credit had a writing and directing career going back three decades. As a writer he was responsible for the excellent Der Mann, der Sherlock Holmes war/The Man Who Was Sherlock Holmes (1937); as a director he also tended to be responsible for various popular comedies but also for the Hitler Youth Propaganda film Jungens (“Boys”, 1941). He also directed a very young and very skinny Gert Fröbe in Berliner Ballade/Ballad of Berlin (1948). In this satirical production Fröbe’s character was named Otto Normalverbraucher (“Otto Average-Consumer”), a name that is still in usage in Germany today as a term for the “Average Joe”.
Wallace films often employed older actors in crucial roles but with Countess this reached its pinnacle, giving the production a very special vibe that was unique within the series.
It’s a wonder that Brigitte Grothum’s character would stay any longer than absolutely necessary in the castle and not do a runner to the remotest part of Scotland. Margaret Reedle is threatened pretty much everywhere she goes and survives bomb attacks and collapsing balconies. Her resilience reminds me a lot of Victoria Winters in the early seasons of Dark Shadows who just can’t seem to let go of a location that is obviously not suitable for her. Grothum would later return back to the series in Das Gasthaus an der Themse/The Inn on the River (1962).
Oh, and of course Joachim Fuchsberger is the male lead and Eddi Arent the comic relief.
No surprises there.
Peter Thomas supplied his first score for a Rialto Wallace but had not yet reached the level of musical madness we would grow to be accustomed to in later entries of the series.
Overall this is very much an actor driven affair with a special focus on insanity rather than the typical masked villains. Countess often gets treated as second-rate Wallace but I have quite a soft spot in my heart for it not despite of but because of its diversions from the familiar formula.
As always, the film is best available in the Edgar Wallace box set from Amazon DE where it is available with English subs and dubs.
